Friday, August 19, 2011

According to a report from Dutch publication Webwereld (via Computerworld), Apple has once again submitted doctored evidence related to their claims of design patent-related infringement by Samsung, this time to a court in Netherlands. This further supports claims by Bas Berghuis of Simmons and Simmons (Samsung’s lawyer) that Apple has been “manipulating visual evidence, making Samsung’s devices appear more similar to Apple’s.”

“It surprises me that for the second time incorrect presentations of a Samsung product emerge in photographic evidence filed in litigation,” said Mark Krul, lawyer and IP law specialist at Dutch firm WiseMen. “This is not appropriate and undermines Apple’s credibility both inside and outside the court room.”If you aren’t up to speed with the legal disputes between Apple and Samsung in Europe… a court in Germany already granted a preliminary injunction halting sales of Samsung’s Galaxy tab 10.1 tablet in the EU (which has been since lifted pending an appeal). We already heard about Apple manipulating images in that case related to the iPad and Galaxy tab. This time, however, the report claims Apple doctored images of the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone in comparison to the iPhone 3G.

Apparently the changes made the Galaxy S appear smaller than it actually is to closer resemble the dimensions of the 3G, which is odd given the fact Computerworld reports Apple has confirmed the Galaxy S does include “some non-identical elements, such as the slightly larger dimensions.” This supports the idea that Apple isn’t trying to secretly submit this evidence to the courts. Many have noted a German court’s decision to grant Apple with the original preliminary injunction on the Galaxy tab didn’t take the doctored images into account. In fact, patent expert Florian Mueller noted ”the court’s decision was based on both Apple’s motion and Samsung’s pre-emptive opposition pleading” and also stated “Samsung is in a legally weak position against Apple. If Samsung wants to inspire confidence, it has to understand that half the truth is sometimes tantamount to a whole lie.”

While the cases in Europe are receiving the majority of media attention, there are also lawsuits pending between the two companies here in the U.S. A report from EdibleApple outlines the case in which Samsung appears to be trying to stall, while Apple pushes for a mid 2012 trial for patent related claims filed by both companies.

Apple explains:

Seeking to obfuscate and delay Apple’s claims, Samsung filed an Answer to the Complaint on June 30 and brought counterclaims based on twelve disparate patents that are unrelated to the subject matter of Apple’s patents. These twelve patents, seven of which purportedly pertain to public wireless communications standards, raise numerous legal, factual, and technical issues that are completely unrelated to Apple’s claims and should be severed and set for trial on a separate track. Samsung itself does not believe that its claims require quick resolution, because it — unlike Apple — has not moved for expedited relief.

Relaying information provided by “high-level sources” from American carrier AT&T, BGR is getting on the early October iPhone 5 launch bandwagon. They’ve heard that AT&T higher-ups told their managers to prepare employees for a “really, really busy” iPhone 5 launch. The internal communication allegedly includes the specific mention of an early October release:

One of our high-level AT&T sources just informed us that an AT&T Vice President has confirmed to several employees that the iPhone 5 is slated to launch in early October. Additionally, the VP communicated the following to a group of managers: ‘Expect things to get really, really busy in the next 35-50 days, so prepare your teams accordingly’.Per information 9to5Mac obtained from trusted sources, corroborating the dates TiPb heard as well, Apple is aiming to launch the fifth-generation iPhone on October 7 and planning on starting pre-orders September 30. Additionally, the first week of October date for the new iPhone’s availability, fits nicely with our report about AT&T’s major early October changes: data throttling and a new insurance plan for $199 devices.

Several leaks do, however, point to a thinner, sleaker form factor that represents a distinctive departure from iPhone 4’s glass design (although some obviously disagree).

BGR previously reported that AT&T had blocked out September for the iPhone 5 launch and that a radically new iPhone 5 was expected in August. They also forecasted a $350 iPhone was due by “end of summer”.

Also, Jim Darlymple at the Loop seems to finally agree with this date.

Hewlett-Packard engineers did dare pull unthinkable: They hacked iPad to install webOS only to find out Apple’s hardware runs their mobile operating system more than twice as fast compared to their own TouchPad hardware, a source “close to the subject” told The Next Web. The finding had devastating effects on the team’s morale:

The hardware reportedly stopped the team from innovating beyond certain points because it was slow and imposed constraints, which was highlighted when webOS was loaded on to Apple’s iPad device and found to run the platform significantly faster than the device for which it was originally developed.It should be pointed out that webOS runs on Qualcomm ARM chips while iPad 2 runs on Samsung silicon. This little nugget is even more revealing:

With a focus on web technologies, webOS could be deployed in the iPad’s Mobile Safari browser as a web-app; this produced similar results, with it running many times faster in the browser than it did on the TouchPad.In fact, the webOS team wanted HP’s TouchPad and Pre hardware “gone” even before the products hit the marketplace according to TNW. With a hardware refresh a year off and similar issues with the Pre phones, this could have contributed to the decision to shutter the webOS and perhaps license it out to other companies (with better hardware).

In a separate report, TNW details how the news was broken to the webOS group within HP.

Almost everyone at HP found out about the death of the TouchPad and Pre hardware as the public did, in the press release. Only the top executives knew anything about this decision and even senior staff as high as Ari Jaaksi, the Vice President of webOS software, didn’t know about the shuttering of hardware before it happened. After the press release came out, there was a company wide meeting filled with a bunch of ‘corporate speak’, in which staff were told that they were going to be in limbo for 3-4 weeks.

It’s worth mentioning Hewlett and Packard were Jobs’ heroes growing up. It is also worth recalling that the company saw absolutely no value in Wozniak’s original personal computer design and laughed him off. The Woz then went on to create the original Apple I, he founded a company with Steve Jobs that put personal computing on the map, the same market Hewlett-Packard would spectacularly exit 34 years later.The rest, as they say, is history.

Adding their bit to the overall confusion related to an upcoming iPad refresh, the Wall Street Journal this morning runs a story asserting that the device is coming out early 2012 rather than this year. Contrary to late reports, “people familiar with the situation” have informed the paper that iPad 3 will in fact rock an ultra-high-resolution display with a 2048-by-1536 pixel resolution, four times the number of pixels on the original iPad’s 1024-by-768 pixel display:

Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia for the trial production of its next generation iPad from October, people familiar with the situation say, as it looks to stay ahead of the competition in the fast-growing tablet computer market. The next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution display – 2048 by 1536 compared with 1024 by 768 in the iPad 2 – and Apple’s suppliers have already shipped small quantities of components for the sampling of the iPad 3. Suppliers said Apple has placed orders for a 9.7-inch screen device.The report does confirm an earlier story telling us Apple scrapped plans for Retina Display iPad 3 this year due to issues associated with volume production of such a high density screen. The company has been reportedly quality-testing 2048-by-1536 displays for iPad 3 from LG and Samsung.